Kansas Added to 2014 Schedule

IMSA announced Friday a shakeup in the schedule for next year’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, which includes the addition of a 13th event at Kansas Speedway and other changes in the Prototype Challenge calendar.

With expected oversized grids, the PC class has been reduced to 10-round schedule, with the elimination of the Detroit and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park events in favor of a standalone race at Kanas Speedway on June 7.

“We already knew what we were going to do at Long Beach and thought we had a solution before for Detroit and ultimately had to make a minor adjustment there,” IMSA President and COO Scott Atherton told Sportscar365.

“All of this is the byproduct of the last three days of spreadsheet analysis and comparing which venues can accommodate which number of cars. Also, where it made the most sense to line up each of the classes and trying to make sure at the end of the process you had a similar race count for each of the categories.”

The Kansas event will be run as a combined race with IMSA Prototype Lites. While not yet finalized, Atherton believes it will be a dual race sprint format, with one driver taking part in each race.

That same format is expected to be used for the VIR weekend, which will also see a joint PC/Lites race, alongside the previously announced GTLM/GTD round on the same weekend.

Additionally, changes have been made to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca weekend, with PC/GT Daytona and Prototype/GT Le Mans having separate races on the same day.The race lengths have yet to be determined and will be dependent on TV variables, Atherton said.

The remainder of the schedule remains unchanged for the P, GTLM and GTD categories.

Atherton said another venue had been under consideration for the standalone PC weekend, but did not go forward due a “promoter decision based on a number of factors.”

The Kansas event falls one week prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, creating challenges for drivers doing both races, as scrutineering in France gets underway the Kansas weekend.

In the end, today’s announcement has equated to wholesale changes to the initial schedule, which was released less than one month ago.

Stupid as hell. I don’t know how many people are involved in the organization of this schedule and championship, but they need to go. What an epic fail. So much for ‘We have to get it right the first time’.

If you want to tinker with the schedule in light of Excel number-crunching:
1) Subtract Hail Mary venues (Kansas, Indy & Detroit)
2) Insert traditional historic road racing venues that have tradition and fan support of the sport through thick and thin years – Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio etc.
3) Remember that there are still 3 days in every weekend to make grid/pit counts work as needed.
Thank you!
-Everybody

About John Dagys

John Dagys (@johndagys) is the founder and editor-in-chief of Sportscar365. The former sports car racing reporter for SPEED.com, Dagys also contributes to FOXSports.com and other motorsports outlets worldwide.
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